Springer ends radio show after 2 years

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CINCINNATI -- Jerry Springer has ended his syndicated radio show after nearly two years, saying he's too busy with other projects that developed after his stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Springer made no mention in the opening minutes Tuesday that the show would be his last, instead launching into a critique of what he called President Bush's "runaway presidency that has so destabilized the Middle East while at the same time endangering America."

Later, he joked with his "Team Springer" sidekicks, saying he hoped they had found jobs, and told one caller he might consider running for office someday.

Although it was the last of his live shows, reruns will be aired the rest of the week while he gets ready for his daughter's wedding Saturday, Springer said.

Springer said it was the wedding that led him to go on "Dancing With the Stars," so he could learn to waltz with Katie. He became an audience favorite, and that led to many other business opportunities, he said.

"These things are not going to come around again, particularly at my age, so I might as well take advantage of them," Springer, 62, said.

Springer said he is filming a Bud Light commercial next week, has been asked to play a recurring character on the ABC sitcom "George Lopez" and in February will play a rabbi in the movie "God Only Knows."

"Radio is a full-time job, and I honestly don't devote the time that I should to radio," he said. "I can't do the job if I'm not going to do it seriously."

Springer, a former mayor and news anchor in Cincinnati, began TV's "Jerry Springer Show" in Cincinnati in 1991, later moving production to Chicago. He started the daily radio show in Cincinnati in January 2005, saying he would bring unabashed liberal views to talk radio.

Syndication peaked at 53 stations, and remained at about two dozen in its final week.